Time Management Please! How to escape deadline failure & create energy!

To all you time thieves out there.......... Get your own life & leave mine alone!!

You ever had that happen to you? Something or someone just appears as if by some strange kind of voodoz-gizmagic & throws you off course, round a few lamposts up a few trees & down with a bump of distinct lack of achievemnet-itis. Usually when you have a deadline, often when you need sleep, always when you know things are going just a little too well, you could almost expect it.
" I wonder what'll go wrong this time?-- La la la la lahaha, but isn't it all going well?-- usually about now I start to get jittery though-- Lalalala ha ha HAH but this time it's different...... isn't it.....? Oh look there's my deadline up ahead......" Aha!! That's the key you see, no?
We do know to expect trouble, because of the way we refer to 'usually' , 'often' or 'always'. It's in the title we give to our thoughts & it's in our heads giving out all that negative energy which will only attract more. But it isn't about anyone else, it's all about you.
Now we're getting somewhere, let us pause.........

.............Remind me just now what an amazing creature you are. Take a moment to evaluate yourself, appreciate all that you do that is good in your world, share it a little with the rest of us..... go on, my name is -fill in the blank- & I am amazing at -activity of your choice- . Feel better? Not thought of anything you're amazing at? Well stick around, that's another entry coming your way soon. Seriously, big pat on the back for what you do get done, all of it, in any measure.

Now for the science bit:
So, who are the time thieves & how do we escape them?

Where to begin....... Ok, see, it may surprise you to know, that someone you know really well could just be your favourite time-thief. By favourite I don't mean like an auntie in whose talcummed breast we can surrender our angst & relax into a deep hypnotic sleep...... unless that's just me.....(?) We're not talking about liking the experience here. What I mean with 'favourite' is, as in the dictionary definition of most prefered which in turn identifies that which we would rather choose or like better. And the really cute part is that if we just choose to take the time to get to know that certain someone just a leetle beet better ........ (you like the way I'm using the same words there for a bit of reinforcement...? Did it work?) we can rid ourselves of the curse of the time thieves once & for all!! Hoorah!!
Are you with me???
Play along with this one, go look in a mirror. When you have finished admiring yourself as you must surely do (no, you must, I insist) think about what you see. More importantly, who, exactly do you see? Do you see the person who needs to be introduced to their time-thief or do you see..... yourself.....? Really see yourSelf? Well hello to you, you have now met the worst & most unfortunate protagonist in this little tale, your biggest time thief ever, it's YOU!!!!
Now now, calm down, this isn't going to hurt any more than that did, the worst is now over. Apart from admitting it. To yourself. Now. 'Hello, me, I am The time thief I fear the most'. Something like that. And just get over it already. Because once you have met them & honoured their existence in your life, guess what? You can set yourself free! This is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you, or the worst if you enjoy making up excuses but we won't go there.

It is an unalterable fact that in life we do the worst possible things to ourselves then look around for someone else to blame. I would love your examples of this so do post your comments. It's fun once you get into it. But seriously folks, we do do that, & we do it rather a lot. In terms of how or why we would do that, don't beat yourself up with the naughty stick, you're only human after all. Oh, & if you're not & you're reading this, far out! The most common cause of stealing from ourselves the most precious commodity known to mortal man is......... fill in the blank as you see fit. Oh alright then, I'll tell, but only if you promise to really really think about......... ok? Where was I, yes, common causation re time-thievery. Well think about it for a moment. Who among us makes use of the bahaviour tool procrastinatus no-actionus? No? What about the neat little disease of something-better-to-do-itis, the not so clever not-lazy-just-need-to-think pause button, or the designer label of did-you-say-next-week-daaarling. No? Oh yes yes yes & there are so many many more, we all have that behaviour tool in our repertoire but it goes by any other name because that too feeds its nasty little habit. Whatever your awareness level currently is regarding your desire or ability to put off that which you could easliy fit into tomorrow is, I can gaurantee you it's happening. Even the most highly trained motivators, coaches, visionaries, (me) professionals with deadlines, er who else........ me, again, we all do it. It isn't always glaringly obvious, sometimes it comes well wrapped in so much other stuff we can't detect the little fella. But I promise you it's there. It is called procrastination & it is often driven by self-sabotage.
What happens is (those of you with an understanding of the Art & Science of NLP will know well) little doubts & questions begin to sneak around gobbling little pockets of time as they go......... we're often not aware of their root cause, we may not know how hungry they are....... but given time the little varmints take over & lo we realise something ain't quite right. So we fight it, we want to win, we want to succeed, make that deadline, prove ourselves......... and............ drat! Pesky little critters gain momentum & voice, crescendo is reached followed by fever pitch of panic & can we think straight in all of that????? You can??
Wow! Most of us find that a real challenge, it's just so noisy & frenetic & frustrating & we slow down...... we fight it...... try to keep going no matter what..... but it feels like walking through treacle to reach a construction site & halfway there you realise you're losing all your tools.
The answer??
Stop.
Be still.
Allow flow...........
Allow ebb.......
Make some new friends as you uncover your own natural rhythm.....

That's how you deal with the symptoms!!!
But you want to know how to tackle the cause!?!
Do you believe yet that you sabotage yourself...........?
Watch this space for more if you want to live your best life.
And remember, pat yourself on the back every time you manage to finish something in time, on time, to the best of your ability. Acknowledge your successes however small. Tell yourself you're great, at least 10 times a day, watch what happens when you start to believe...............


email to jennie@esteemsolutions.co.uk
website coming soon!!!!! www.esteemsolutions.co.uk

It Happened On The Seafront

It all started because I was playing hooky. I work for myself so any time I'm not at my desk, prospecting for clients, with clients or otherwise "available", I'm playing hooky. But this was no ordinary hooky. As I found out, this was very important hooky.

There I was staring out to sea, wondering at the enormity of life.... I had just attended my Profit Club breakfast meeting, it was still only 10.15am & I had the entire day to reflect on what we're all to make of The Law of Attraction......

I was not alone! Well I mean, can't a girl get some peace? On a seafront as big as, as, well it's a big one ok. Plenty of room to avoid people. Plenty of big wide open space to mind your own business......
"Morning young Miss!" came the shout out.... my way. My way? What was I doing? Hold on a minute, I was walking towards him!
"Morning to you!" came my jovial reply. Now, I realise I referred to myself earlier as a girl. Fact is I know some girls, & they're a lot younger than me so ok I'm a sucker for a compliment & he had me, he thought I was a 'young miss'. Right in the palm of his hand I was like a swooning..... thing that swoons. Well he was old & you know, they fought the war, can't be rude to an old person.

Herein lies today's first lesson. Okay, yesterday's but I got home late & didn't have time to do this. So, the lesson. Yes what was it? Yes, ok, this man. He'd seen me.

-If I am invisible, how did he see me standing there? And more, of all the people passing by, why did he talk to me?

Because I was invisible once! And now, I'm just not anymore.

A story for you: once upon a time a very long time ago (hey, don't push it, I've fessed up to the age thing now leave it alone) there was a young (heyho) girl who liked to watch people. She watched people because, one day, she hoped to become just like them, only she didn't know how. Thing is, as a 'not-quite-a-real-person-yet' kind of a person, this girl didn't realise that she could be seen. Other people, the real ones, they could be seen. She knew this because she watched them, every day. There they all were, living their lives, doing their thing, supposedly (definitley she thought) successfully.

When this girl grew up, she realised she had spent all of her time trying to learn how to be somebody else. And now, because of all that wasted energy, the girl became very sick. And the girl stayed sick........ for a very long long time.

Throughout her efforts to become well, she still felt invisible as she was very clearly most definitely still not a real person. How can you be when you're living off the state, totally dependant on the people around you for almost everything, seemingly giving nothing back & feeling like a burden? How? Huh? Well you know I really don't know the answer to that one. How does anyone feel like a real person? A grown up. What's a grown up?

So this man had my attention. Why not, I had clearly grabbed his. And this is something I know I do on a frequent basis, only conveniently remembering to be invisible on days like well yesterday, but see I'd been working with The Law & The Law clearly states that positive vibes will attract like in return. There would have been nothing I could do to stop it unless I decided to sink into a bucket of negative.... stuff.... that lives in buckets. You get my drift. I was 'aligned' you see. That's what it's called when you're allowing the good stuff you want to come your way to make that transition from thought waves into matter. You'll have to read the book. Well there's loads of books. Get one that suits you, it's called The Law of Attraction.

The girl woke up one day & the world was different. She had one goal in mind & that was to be well again. But first, she had to know what was wrong. Her disease (dis-ease) was misunderstood, no one really knew what it was & no one knew what to do about having it. Certainly there was no one to tell her how to recover, that just didn't seem to happen. While she was awake, the girl got to thinking........ 'see all that time I spent watching...... I don't know why, but it means something. I'm going to find out what it means because that's what I was doing right before I became so sick.'

The "Aha" of that moment really wore her out & she quickly fell back to sleep. It was an enormous task. Her mission, should she choose to accept it, was to use all that stored information for her recovery. But it needed sifting & sorting. It needed organisation. It needed to make sense. If she was right then she could be well in oh say, a couple more years? But then what.....?

I should have at least asked for his name. He was in fact 82, would have indeed seen the tail end of the War if not been involved in some way...... most men of that age were. Why does the War still make me feel like crying...... So he told me he'd seen me take a good look out to sea but he didn't think I'd be going in for a dip any time soon. Er, correct. It was mild-ish, it's autumn after all so the heat of the summer sun has all but DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY!!! Sorry. Had a late holiday overseas & came back to falling leaves, cold snaps & just generally lots of other snaps as tempers fray & the days get shorter.... & shorter..... Anyhoo, no I wasn't going in. Cheeky monkey was provoking me! Cheeky monkey was wanting to brag about the fact that....... "Been in not less than three times this last week!"

Now see, why is it when confronted with somewhat of a bold act from someone old enough to be my Grandad (loved my Grandad) I'm reduced to the interractive skills of a chipmunk. Yes I squeaked. Cheeks puffed, squeak emitted, what next? I have no idea how to talk to old people without sounding exceptionally maternal, nurturing & oh deary deary me, PATRONISING. Yikes. Someone get me out of here before I embarass myself.

The girl did eventually recover her health. Hoorah! More than that she uncovered a sense of self so profound that she had to recreate her relationships with all of these people (whether thay had ever known she existed or not) so that she could use the information in the right way. Not trying to learn how to be just like them, but learning how to show them how to be more of themselves. And as for her health, what d'you know! Esteem Solutions was born. Yippee!!!!

So the lesson then. Yes the lesson. Where was I? Yes, should've bought him a cup of tea. Law of Attraction rule no. 5,673 (possibly number 1 actually but I'm not one of the experts just yet so go with the humour on this one) "Follow your Bliss" . Want to know the full quotation? Want to know who first said that? Your wish is my command: "Follow your bliss & the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.", Joseph Campbell 1904-1987.

It would have been an honour to spend some time with this man, not playing hooky. Learning about life, learning how to be. He left me standing there gawping, he said I looked beautiful (reason for the gawp, I squeaked a thank-you- actually that's harsh, I was marginally more articulate than a chipmunk by this stage. For the sake of argument I'll promote myself to a raccoon) I turned to walk on the sand. But goodness me I'm stupid. He walked past me half an hour later, raised his hand up behind me in salute & hailed something or other that the wind took away & still I stood there. What was I supposed to do, run after him & ask if he could spare the time?

So the lesson. You tell me.